Hong Kong: Moreira rides eight winners on Sha Tin program

Jockey Joao Moreira won eight races on Sunday’s 11-race program at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong, a record for a single program in Hong Kong. Moreira had 10 mounts on the program.

The previous mark of six wins on a single program in Hong Kong was shared by Brett Prebble, Douglas Whyte, and Moreira.

“I really don’t have words to describe it,” Moreira told Hong Kong publicity. “It’s amazing. I didn’t expect it to happen, to be honest. To ride eight winners in a day here in Hong Kong is more than special.”

Moreira won the first four races before sitting out the fifth race. He won the sixth race, and finished sixth in the seventh race before winning the eighth. Moreira finished 10th in the ninth race before sweeping the last two races.

Moreira, 32, is the clear leader in the jockey standings of the current Hong Kong meeting, which began in September and continues to early July. Moreira has won two riding titles in Hong Kong, most recently in the 2015-16 season.

Sunday, Moreira won the $322,069 Friendship Bridge Handicap at five furlongs on turf on Mr. Stunning, a rapidly improving 4-year-old gelding who could start in Group 1 races in Hong Kong later this year. Mr Stunning beat Not Listenin’tome, who is a candidate for the $2 million Golden Shaheen Sprint in Dubai on March 25.

Mr Stunning carried 115 pounds, 16 less than Not Listenin’tome.

Moreira has previously won eight races on a program in his native Brazil in 2008 and in Singapore in 2013, according to the South China Morning Post. Moreira, won six races on a program twice at Sha Tin in 2015. Prebble won six races at Happy Valley in 2010. Whyte won six races at Sha Tin in 2013.